Harvest went well.

The humidity must have been non-existent as some of the stuff dried in just a few days.

IT WORKS!

The light coverage over the canopy resulted in a bunch of buds, both big and small.

Potency is very good.

This next grow I will LST and prune the lower stuff.

What was your dry yield? How long before it's cured and we get a quality test?

SisterMaryElephant wrote:What was your dry yield? How long before it's cured and we get a quality test?

Yield was about 12-14 oz (8-9 week bloom cycle), but what a difference.

The "potency" is just as good as it gets.

Here is an interesting observation:

The LED grow is better then any new 600 watt HPS ever gave me.

Furthermore, I have jarred harvests that show the degradation of the HPS, so there is an increase in whatever part of the spectrum the plants like.

I'm sure you'll do better next time, now that you're getting used to the LED lighting.

Perhaps it's the genetics or something but with either the HPS or the SS800 you could be getting around 600 grams which is why I believe you'll do better next time.

A number of things cause degradation, including light, heat and time...even post harvest.

On to the next one...

Finally got around to taking the newest harvest for a test drive.

WOW!

Has a great perfume and WORKS GREAT!

LEDs are the way to go.........

Note: I talked to another grower and he is replacing his HPS after every other grow as he has noticed the drop in spectral output also.

It's always nice to get a good test drive report too...

LED is an expensive replacement for HPS but it certainly does work for growing. The CLW lights are very well made and George *always* gives excellent customer service; if LED was more cost effective I'd consider switching. Maybe in another 10 years, or so, the prices will come down and I'll be able to find the exact features and sizes that I'd be looking for for. I just can't justify paying more for less, especially right now.


YMMV...

Got more feedback on the harvest.

"best ever".

This is the same strain of White Widow I grew under HPS.

Great to hear, in what ways is it better than before? WW has always been great strain, that's why it won so many awards and has been used to breed many other strains.

My opinion of LED grow lights has evolved over the last year or so that I've been here. When I first got here I was still in the "clone/veg/mother only" camp but the 5w diodes on the CLW SS series has proven that LED can flower pretty well too. Still slightly behind an equal sized HPS light, imho, but powerful enough to be close. LED lights are also better suited for shorter plants rather than taller "trees" but, as the saying goes; there are a thousand ways to skin a cat.

Now my biggest problem with LED is cost which will come down eventually. Unfortunately there are a great number of LED manufacturers that spread common LED myths based on selective data, cherry picked for marketing reasons. Those hurt LED lighting rather than help and they don't care. Some are, obviously, better than others; CLW is one of the better companies out there and everybody says they have outstanding support which says a lot too. The only things stopping me from buying from CLW now are based on cost-benefit/ROI/economic issues and the lack of desired features/options/sizes for my own needs.

YMMV...

Better in the perfume and much better as to potency.

This harvest produced a great batch even with the small setbacks.

I am sold on LEDs.

CLW needs to show a graph of spectrum life over a grow period of HID vs LED.

I know they show an initial comparison, but over the grow period the HPS degrades.

Yes, HID bulbs do have to be replaced semi-often to correct the loss over time. There is some debate on how often that is. Some say once per year some say more often. Unfortunately, even if you factor in the cost of 5 years worth of HID bulbs; it's still cheaper to run the HID. I've done the cost/benefit analysis and debated that very subject in many forums including this one. You might want to go back and read some of the older topics where we debated this to see if the info helps you or not. There are a number of LED myths that just don't hold up to the reality test.

Based on reality, the price of a 2000.00 LED light today, like the SS800, would have to drop to about 500-ish to make them cost effective for me but even at that price I'd still be dropping ~40% of the light output (compared to a 1000w HPS) and that's ~40% less yield and less area covered. There are people that don't care about (or understand) yield, coverage, costs, overhead or ROI...but I do.

Again, don't get me wrong, LED lighting is getting better and eventually it should get cheaper but I've seen used car salesmen and politicians that were more honest than many (not all) LED manufacturers. CLW earns higher marks than most in that area, they are one of the better companies but even they use some LED marketing propaganda (myths) that I would consider misleading.

If I were looking for LED today CLW would be at the top of my list but even they don't offer exactly what I'd be looking for. Today, HID is still king but LED *is* getting closer.